Without a living donor, the waiting time for a kidney transplant in Alabama ranges between five and 10 years, says Dr. Robert S. Gaston, a nephrologist at UAB.

That can be an eternity for thousands of desperately ill people, and many die waiting.

So it's understandable that some patients turn to transplant tourism - traveling to another country to buy an organ, usually a kidney.

"I can't believe I would consider going abroad and buying an organ," Gaston said. "But on the other hand, if this were my child..."

This dilemma has become the subject of a paper recently accepted for publication by the journal Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation. Written by Gaston and another nephrologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Hasan A. Khamash, the paper provides an overview of transplant tourism.This dilemma has become the subject of a paper recently accepted for publication by the journal Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation. Written by Gaston and another nephrologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Hasan A. Khamash, the paper provides an overview of transplant tourism.